THE NATION and THE SOLDIER, 



BY 



George R. Peck. 



The Nation and The Soldier. 



AN ORATION 



Delivered before the Indiana Commandery of the Military 

Order of the Lo}'al Legion of the United States, 

at Indianapolis, July 4, 1890. 



By ^(.^<- 
GEORGE r! peck. 



TOPEKA: 
KANSAS PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

1890. 



JU:IA^4. ipfe-. Jlv^f. i^L . 



'09 



T36 



THE NATION AND THE SOLDIER. 



Companions, Ladies and Gentlemen: From 
the distant AVest, the liistoric, fruitful and now 
peaceful fields of our first civic strife, I bring 
you a salutation and a greeting. Tlie day and 
the occasion are happily mated. From immemo- 
rial times, men who have borne arms have en- 
joyed a certain distinction; the tribute that human 
nature yields to those who have played the big 
stakes of life and death. Responsive to, or per- 
haps created by, this sentiment, is the tendency 
of those who have been in the stress and rigor 
of the game, to look back with a feeling which 
is partly love, and partly pride, on the old days 
— and the old cause. 

It matters little that many seasons have passed 
since arms were stacked; nor that we who were 
young and gay, have felt the frost in our joints 
and on youthful forms the rust of the implacable 
years. The soldier must not question fate. This 
much is ours: to know, that if eyes beam some- 
what less brightly and heads reveal the gray au- 
tumnal touch, the things that once were dear are 



precious yet, and tlie faitli of other clays Las not 
departed. 

Tliis is a holy day; but surely we may be })ar- 
doned if while we remember that it means a na- 
tion's birth, some of us shall recall that it means 
also A'icksburg's famous victory, and the river 
that flowed unvexed to the sea. Nor can a 
Union soldier be blamed if he remembers that 
once he kept the day on the field of Gettysburg, 
kno^ving at last that the Fourth of July was not 
a dream, but a living and majestic reality. Such 
memories as these, lingering fondly in the sol- 
dier's heart, are the true sanctions of this order 
to which we belong, and of CNcry organization in 
which the veterans of the war have o-athered 
themselves. In the due adjustment of rights and 
interests; the establishment of those great equities 
tliat mark the true relation of a citizen to his 
Government, the soldier of the Union has no right 
to claim tliat tlie Nation belongs to him. But 
he has a right to think that in a peculiar sense 
he belongs to the Nation. AVhatever weakness 
may dwell in his heart, whatever sorrows may 
darken liis life, whatever tem})tations have l)eeu 
too strong for his will to resist, nevertheless 
nothing can rob him of tlic dignity that belongs 
to every man who can say, '' I helped to save the 
United States of America, one and indivisible." 

The Loyal Legion signifies, to us at least, that 



loyalty is a virtue wliich should never go out of 
fashion. Love of country is not, and should not 
be, a sentiment that responds only to the bugle 
and the drum. It is indeed true that the finest 
im23ulses may lie dormant, waiting the call that 
shall transmute them into vital convictions. But 
yet it is also true that a nation is T)est endo\ved 
when it has the common every- day affecti(ni of 
its people, in peace as ^vell as in war. 

The people of the United States call themselves 
Americans, claiming the name of the continent 
to mark their aspirations and their destiny. But 
what is that ideal feeling we sometimes call "the 
American spirit"? Surely it is not a selfish lust 
of possession; the vulgar satisfaction of knowing 
that we inhabit an imperial domain, and that no 
one must trespass on wdiat w^e call our own. 
Some l)etter reason must be in our hearts, some 
truer feeling must inspire our lives, l)efoi-e we 
can rightly know ^vhat patriotism is. Even the 
brute loves its own jungle. The tiger will fight 
to the death for the greensward on wliich it has 
plaj^ed, or the spring at which it has quenched 
its thirst. Only men fight for a sentiment; only 
men give up their lives for the things they have 
not seen. Fields of cotton and fields of corn 
will grow under any sun that yields its compel- 
ling rays. The harvest cares not what sickle 
shall reap it. Nature is calmly indifferent; deal- 
ing out the rude justice of the seasons, and 



heeding not the hisses nor the gains. But men 
think ; they alone ha\e " that large discourse 
looking before and after" which is the real basis 
of moral responsibility. The true American loves 
not simply the United States, but that for which 
the United States stands. The American flag is 
something more than a harmonious blending of 
coh^rs. AVho has not felt the awe and mystery 
that dwell in holy emblems;! AVhat faith has 
not l)een (piickened by signs and symbols that 
represent those invisible and eternal things of 
Avbieh human lips can never rightly speaks The 
United States is greater in Avhat it means than 
in wliat it is. When the war was upon us, if 
territory had been all that was involved we could 
have settled the dispute, and ought to have set- 
tled it, l)y an agreed division. The household 
gods could have been parted; the fields and herds 
apportioned. There was room for Abraham and 
for Lot; but there Avas not room for two ideas 
that never could be one. The Saracen and the 
Frank never Idended, because they worshiped at 
different shrines; and North and South could only 
make a mockery of Union while one ^vas for free- 
dom and the other against it. History, when truly 
written, deals less with men than with ideas; 
less with the boundaries of empires than Avith 
customs, traditions, and faiths. We said we were 
fighting for the Union, and so we truly were; 
but up in the stars, if we had looked, we should 



liave seen that Union meant somethino; of infi- 
nitely more worth than farms and factories, or 
ships and custom-houses. The act which makes 
this day memorable derives its lustre, not from 
the fact that it established a Nation, but because 
it touched the true note to which a Nation's life 
should be set. The Declaration of Independence 
was not the casting off of one government and 
the setting up of another. It was a reconstruc- 
tion of the very idea of government; the asser- 
tion of doctrines which men had vaguely carried 
in their hearts, but had thought them too good 
to be true. I imagine they were surprised at 
their own audacity when they set their names to 
that heroic recital of wrongs and the illustrious 
declaration of rights which went with it. 

It is a peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon race 
that it does not much incline to abstract specu- 
lation on matters of government, religion, or 
morals; but no people are so skillful in drawing 
up those great State papers which become land- 
marks of history. Such was Magna Charta; such 
were the acts and resolutions of that Puritan 
Parliament that brought an English King to the 
block; such was the great declaration of rights 
which John Somers in the name of all the estates 
of the realm hurled at the House of Stuart; such 
were the rude but comprehensive constitutions 
framed by the first comers to New England; and 
such was the Declaration of Independence which 



Thomas Jefferson wrote, and a people witli the 
English love of liberty in their veins sanctioned 
and inspired. There is in the history, the litera- 
ture, and in the very language of our race, a 
sort of divine compulsion to self-government. 

" We must be free or die who speak the tongue 
That Shakespeare spake ; the faith and morals hold 
Which Milton held." 

There is an insoluble mystery in the processes 
of historical development. We only know what 
apj)ears on the surface. We see the wave, but not 
the force that whitens its crest, and dashes it 
against the shoi*e. And yet, there is a meaning 
in it, as there is a meaning in the strange, tire- 
less and ceaseless motion of humanity. In some 
way we may be sure that nothing happens that 
ought to have been omitted from the drama of 
history. There is a right and a wrong; but God 
gathers them together and makes them serve a 
purpose too large for us to understand. No one 
knows, or cares to know, tlie names of those who 
died at Marathon; but Marathon itself, the glories 
that cluster round the story of that heroic day, 
are in our lives, common and prosaic as they 
seem. It is not onl>^ an alluring theory, but a 
truth, \\hich science has announced, that ever}'^ 
human being, by the law of heredity, is an epit- 
ome of all the generations whose blood is in his 
veins. In the truest sense, all the sacrifices of 
the past, the agonies, the sorrows and the tears, 



9 

were for us; and for us too, were the glories 
and the joys that tell how life may l)e won, even 
when it is lost. 

More than a century has passed since the Dec- 
laration of Independence was published. How 
stately and formal its sentences seem to us who 
have l)een through the furnace to keep them from 
being dishonored ! Is it indeed true that all men 
are created equal i Are life and liberty really so 
sacred as our fathers thought? Has time justified 
their lofty words, the brave God-speed with which 
they launched the bark that carried such precious 
freight? History will answer these questions; and 
your names will be upon the page. They pro- 
claimed self-evident truths; but alas! no truth 
ever yet marched far towards its goal without a 
struggle, and so the Fourth of July had to face 
the inevitable, not once, but twice; and you are 
the witnesses of its courage, its faith, and its 
triumph. 

In the rush and hurry of these busy days, and 
with the memories, sad and tragic, of our own 
contest fi'esh upon us, ^ve do not perhaps always 
do justice to the men who were the iirst apostles 
of liberty. Let us not vaunt ourselves, nor set 
our music to the highest key. AVe must not think 
because Appomattox was glorious, that Yorktowu 
was of little moment. A life is a life; and Lib- 
erty counts all her jewels of ecpial value. We 
trod a rugged path, but so did they who counted 



10 

not tlie years that were needed to l)riiig tlieni 
their deliverance. 

The Declaration of Independence is incompar- 
ably the greatest, wisest and clearest statement 
of liunian rights ever put upon paper. And it 
is a curious fact that neither the men who framed 
it nor their contemj)oraries were always success- 
ful when they put their hands to the pen. The 
Articles of Confederation Avere, from the first, a 
hopeless failure. Ten amendments to the Con- 
stitution were made almost immediately after its 
adoption, two shortly afterwards, and finally, as you 
kno^v too ^vell, three more were written in blood. 
Even now, there are many respects in which it 
could doubtless be improved. But the Declara- 
tion of Independence remains forever "one en- 
tire and perfect chrysolite;" and is confessedly the 
true gospel of our freedom, the true standard of 
American rights. In that great statement of the 
equality of men, is found the l^est medicine for 
national disease, the best balm for the hurts and 
bruises of the l)ody politic. It means equality of 
opportunity; a just share in the gifts of nature; 
a fair chance in the race of life, under laws that 
all have helped to make. The right to these 
things is inalienable. It can neither l»e taken 
away, nor voluntarily given up ; for the Dec- 
laration of Independence means that you can- 
not rightfully make your l^rother a slave 
even by his own consent. In short, this great 



11 

charter, in the lines and betAveen the lines, de- 
clares that the golden rule of legislation and 
government, like the golden rule of human con- 
duct, is the unselfish recognition of the rights of 
others. It is a high ideal; too high, perhaj)s, 
for the eighteenth or the nineteenth century, but 
not too high for the age that is coming, when 
the ashes of the dead shall blossom in hopes 
made real, and the blood of martyrs shall crim- 
son the flower that trutli sets in the wreath of 
the immortals. 

We are sixty millions of people. What an un- 
counted multitude of interests are at stake, and 
how hard it is to keep the strong and the weak, 
the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the wise, 
each in his own proper orbit; each in that har- 
monious relation to the other which is the aim 
of a government like ours. The sublimity of 
such a conception, the ideal perfectness to which 
it aspires, adds to the difficulty of attaining 
it. For neither the Declaration of Independence, 
nor golden rules, nor the teachings of the wise, 
nor the example of the good, have cleared men's 
hearts of the taint of selfishiness. We still think 
of ourselves first, of our section, our class, and 
the interest which lies nearest our own. The 
men who live by the mountains, and the men 
who live by the sea, imagine sometimes that God 
placed them tliere for the benefit only of those 
who dwell by their side. But the true idea of 



12 

this Nation is unity; not of States alone, but of 
interests, so tliat each shall be for all, and all 
for each. The shi^^s that sail to far-off shores, 
the fields that give their increase, the mines tilled 
with the Avealth whicli Nature tried to hide, — 
what are these but the gifts which under God's 
la^v no man can hold unto himself alone i We 
are trustees for each other; and in the light of 
those great words which make the Declaration 
immortal, how shall an American citizen forget 
his fello\vs who are heirs to every right he calls 
his own i "And the eye cannot say to the hand, 
I have no need of thee; nor again the head to 
the feet, I have no need of you." 

Every hour hath its peril; and the peril of this 
hour is forgetfulness. It is for you more than 
for any one else — soldiers who made the color 
of the sky more beautiful by wearing it on your 
breasts — it is for you who did not forget the^i^ 
to see that this Nation does not forget now. 

Rufus Choate, with rare but unhappy felicity 
of speech, once spoke of "tlie glittering and 
sounding generalities which make up the Decla- 
ration of Independence." But the world discov- 
ered tluit they were something more, when the 
pen of Abraham Lincoln graved them on the 
dusky palms of four millions of slaves. The les- 
son of that act, and of every act which has a 
heart in it, is that always an opportiuiity is wait- 
ing to make life sweeter by making it freer. 



Tlie problem is, how to adjust the clashing in- 
terests of men, so that each shall have an equal 
chance; so that selfishness shall see that it stands 
in its own light; so that those who are in the 
front shall help those who linger, and they who 
are slow of foot shall (piicken their pace to the 
music that is sounding for all. This Nation 
stands dedicated to liberty, to justice, and to that 
impersonal representative of both — Law. Put the 
Declaration of Independence into every statute, 
and our National polity will glow with some- 
thing of that brightness that shines in the faces 
of men when the Sermon on the Mount is re- 
vealed to their listening^ hearts. 

Statesmanship is said to be a practical art, and 
so indeed it is; Init I wish that cabinets and 
courts and senates would always remember, that 
in this Nation nothing can be of such practical 
importance as the inviolate observance of the 
principles which make this day all that it is. 
Statesmen should learn, and the people them- 
selves should not forget, that truth never yet lost 
any of its l^eauty when crystallized into law. All 
that we knoAv of what is called progress in this 
world consists of getting ideals incorporated into 
the lives of men and of nations; of clothing sen- 
timent in the flesh and blood of the actual; of 
making things spiritual manifest in things real. 

Back of the flower is the sense of beauty that 
makes its colors pleasant to the eye ; l)ack of 



u 

every noble utterance is tlie moral sentiment that 
attests its truth. If you would know the value 
of the Declaration of Independence, think ^vhat 
our lives would be if we had never felt its in 
spiring touch, nor known \vhat meanings are re- 
vealed in its pregnant sentences. The men ^vho 
signed it, and the men who fought for it, had us 
in their minds as well as themselves, and in the 
truest sense they knew that the stamping of paper 
and the taxing of tea were of little consequence 
comj)ared ^^'\th. the I'iglit which you and I enjoy 
of l)eing masters of ourselves, and of our own in- 
heritance. Do you think they could have carried 
on a seven-years war if they had not felt that 
they were lighting the battles of the future ( Men 
will dare more for rights than for money, or prop- 
erty, or land; for it is and always must be true, 
that the things which are most precious are those 
which are not seen, nor bought, nor sold. 

Fellow- soldiers, it is not wrong for you to be 
proud that some day history will link your 
names with the names of those who saluted 
the daAvn of American liberty. The time will 
come when men ^vill little heed the years that 
separate the age of Washington from the age 
of Lincoln. They Avill rightly think that time 
is not important when a great cause is in the 
balance, and that centuries are but breathino;- 
spells when liberty leads the column. What 
does it signify whether a soldier fouglit at 



15 

Salamis, or at Nasel^y? — at Saratoga, or at 
Sbiloli? All are in the ranks of the immortah 
Time names her classics, and sets the seal of 
glory on every Held \\diere men have died for 
men. The soldier is bnt a pawn npon the board. 
And yet how gl-eat are the issues of ^var. If the 
battle of Toui's had gone the other way, the sign 
of the camel -driver would have blazed all over 
western Europe. A hundred fields where Union 
soldiers fought would have been lost but for 
their enduring faith; and if lost, our cause, which 
was surely the holiest ever yet submitted to arms, 
might have gone into the sad and dreary list that 
history writes down as failures. Failure: it is 
hard to think now that by any possibility it 
could have come to us. And yet, hoAv many 
weary days there were when the issue trembled 
and hopes were dim, and even faith was chast- 
ened with tears. We shall not forget in this life, 
the eager and exultant prophecies of defeat wafted 
across the sea, from those who thought that 
crowns and coronets could go on prospering, 
but that a government with liberty in it must 
perish. Military critics, wise in their generation, 
said victory was impossible; and skillful pens 
were busy writing down the fate of the great 
republic. But they forgot God. And they for- 
got the men, who, standing in the ranks, had 
taught their very bayonets to believe that this 
Nation could not die. 



16 

It is not for ns to lightly speak of tliose who 
folloAved another flag than ours. Some there 
were, nearly all, perhaps, who thought they did 
God's service. And yet, they were wrong; blind, 
deaf, deceived, and betrayed l)y those who knew 
the light, but loved the darkness. We call them 
rel)els; T)ut let us not forget that they were our 
rebels. They were our countrymen; bone of our 
bone, and flesh of our flesh, and every soldier of 
the Union down in his heart is murmuring the 
prayer, "What God hath joined together, let not 
man put asunder." And we, w^lio wore the blue, 
must forever, and for always, stand fast by the 
Declaration of Independence, and by the glory that 
was in it when Cornwallis dipped the standard of 
England to the banner of AVashington, and when 
Lee lowered the wretched stars and bars to that 
flag which was Grant's and yours and mine. It 
is the flag of the present and the future; the one 
in many, the many in one; the sign of victory 
to those who fought for it, and of grace, mercy 
and peace for those \\\\o blindly fought against it. 

A quarter of a century has flown since we ^vere 
mustered out. Hate, anger, and passion have 
gone from our hearts. The flres have sunk 
into ashes; the lights are t>ut; the martial hymns 
have faded into an echo. I am sure I speak the 
sentiment of every Union soldier when I repeat 
the language of our old commander, "Let us have 
peace," and of him who carried the burden of 



17 

the years: "We are not enemies, bnt friends; we 
must not be enemies. Thougli passion may have 
strained, it must not break our bonds of affec- 
tion. The mystic chords of memory stretching 
from every battle-fiehl and patriot grave to every 
living heart and hearth -stone will yet swell the 
chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
The prophecy of Lincoln is coming true. The 
better angels are here; and in every place where 
soldiers give the hand and the heart with it, to 
those who turn their eyes to the front, and bow 
their heads to the august future, and its noble 
promises. Only this ^ve ask — and we ask it with 
an insistence that will not gro^v less with years: 
Let us be friends indeed; let us feel that the past 
is irrevocable, but not therefore wasted. Let us 
join hands and go forward to the duty that lies 
nearest. 

Something I might say, if it were right to say 
anything, of a somewhat too effusive joy that 
marked a recent tribute to a great soldier, who 
gave his name and his sword to a cause we l)e- 
lieve to be unspeakably wrong. It is not for us 
to decide how far military skill or personal char- 
acter can lessen the guilt of treason. Bnt of 
this, oh! loyal hearts, be sure: neither l)ronze nor 
marble can en<lure long enough to change wrong 
into right, nor to cure the broken oath of Robert 
E. Lee. Some day, perhaps, anothei" colossal form 



18 

^vill stand by the side of his, grand, massive and 
heroic, the statue of one who simply thought that 
a soldier's plighted word meant what it said; a 
man who spoke little of his honor, but kept it 
stainless as the snow; a soldier of tlie antique 
type; the greatest son Virginia gave to the war — 
George H. Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga. 

North and South: they are not pleasant words. 
As Americans, as soldiers who fought for the 
cause that carried liberty and civilization in its 
Ijosom, let us try to make all our countrymen 
see that the victory was for all : that they wh(^ 
lost, won, far beyond their largest dream of em- 
pire. For God so ordered it that their blood 
and heroism should be blended with that of their 
brothers who wore the blue, and together they 
have builded the noblest structure this earth has 
seen. Its lofty dome shelters those who loved it 
not — equally with tliose who wrought with will- 
ing hearts to lay its foundations and to rear its 
enduring walls. The world takes daily note of 
it, and sees that Milton's prophetic conception of 
an ideal nation has here been realized. "Not 
many sovereignties united in one commonwealth, 
but many commonwealths in one united and in- 
trusted sovereignty." 

They say that soldiers grow garrulous witli 
age. But why should they not? The tents are 
down. The camp is broken up. What is left 
))ut memories and hopes? When Harry of Eng- 



19 

land led his soldiers to Agin court it Avas easy to 
tell them of "modest stillness and humility." But 
who could hush their tongues to peace when, 
gathered in the village alehouse, or under the 
shade of spreading English elms, they told of that 
immortal day and how they won the fight under 
the smiling skies of France? 

It is but natural, that as age steals on, we 
slioidd talk more and more of Grant and Sher- 
man, of Sheridan and Hancock, and the comrades 
who stood within elbow-touch when the fight was 
at its whitest heat. One name stands for many; 
the leader represents all who followed him in the 
deadly assault, or stood by his side when the 
guns were double-shotted to welcome the coming 
foe. The man who won his stars by honest ser- 
vice, the stars that gleamed with the light of duty 
well performed, stands for all who in the name- 
less throng of gallant men, made it possible for 
him to wear them. Only non-combatants imagine 
that some speechless gulf separated the Marshal 
who led an army, from the un-epauletted Mar- 
shal who carried his baton in his knapsack. We 
were all fighting for the same cause, and they 
who led only followed, and they avIio followed, 
led. 

It is an honor I cannot j&tly acknowledge to 
stand before this asseml)lage of ununiformed valor. 
Here are hearts that once throbbed with the joy 
of victory, and almost ceased to beat in the sor- 



20 

roA\' tliat comes to those who see the iiao; o-o down. 
The sohliers of Indiana, brave as the bravest, kept 
step on every battle-iield with the column that 
marched to the front. Here, too, are the soldiers 
of other States. They helped with might and 
main. But little does the Union soldier heed 
^^-hether a comrade's home ^\'sls East or West, 
or North or South. They fought for a cause 
which stood four-square, and on every side was 
UTitten, Liberty. There is joy in their hearts 
when they think how they followed the ilag, and 
joy when they meet in soldier fashion to pledge 
the days that are left, by the days that are no 
more. 

Our lives are short. The Avorld, ancient and 
Avrinkled with the years, is strange and curious, 
for Ave hardly learn it before we pass away. It is 
sometimes hard to comprehend that anything is 
worth struggling for. But, thanks to those who 
have marked the way, life is not altogether fruitless 
even here. Death is a mystery but not a terror 
to those who have been wrought upon by a great 
cause. Out in the street are the sounding dem- 
onsti-ations, which tell us that in a way less quiet 
than ours youth and strength are giving tlieir 
lusty brawn to the celebration of the day. AMiat 
does it mean i Only this: that freedom is so 
divine a thing that men cannot give it honor 
enough until they (h-own all other sounds in the 
noisy chorus of American nationality. If you 



21 

listen you will be conscious of a deeper harmony, 
that tells how always under the tumults are the 
silent depths; that within the music there is an- 
other music, playing the self-same air in tones so 
soft that only the soul can hear. Let us be con- 
tent; for to-day and every day our eyes l)ehold 
the glad results of the great war. Sorrow turns 
to joy when we think what is — and what nii^it 
have been. We have not seen, and shall not 
see, every wrong made right. God always keeps 
some cause for future generations to serve. But 
what you did, soldiers of the Union, will make 
it easier for those who in the days that are com- 
ing shall try to lift up Truth and put a crown 
upon her broAv. The Fourth of July and the 
faith it stands for cannot perish in this ao-e, nor 
while men shall hear how a loyal people went 
forth to battle in God's name and w^on the day. 
And the soldiers coming home, as they laid away 
their swords and muskets, felt in their blood the 
words which Lowell put into his great Ode: 

"What were our lives without thee? 
What all our lives to save thee? 
We reck not what Ave gave thee; 
We will not dare to doubt thee, 
But ask whatever else, and we will dare." 

The nio-ht of life is not far off. AVe thouo-ht 
it A\^ould come more slowly, but even no^v its 
shadows are upon us. We have had our day. 
But while ^ve live, the old fires will flash when- 



22 

ever danger appears, and the old lial)it come T)ack 
when we hear the reveille. The soldier remains 
on guard. Always in his heart is the image of a 
Nation, great, nol)le, merciful, patient, free. He 
waits — an d thinks. 



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